OTTAWA SPORT Hall of Fame
Celebrating Ottawa’s Sporting Heritage

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 30, 2020

13-time USport Champion Coach Dave Smart among six to be honoured

Ottawa, ON -The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame announced today that basketball coach Dave Smart, hockey player and official Marina Zenk, Carleton Sports Therapy founders Phil Ashcroft and Dr. Donald Johnson, martial arts legend John Therien , along with hockey pioneer Derek Holmes will be its 2020 inductees. They will be honoured at the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which will take place on Wednesday, May 13 at the Brookstreet Hotel.

Each year the selection process seems to get more and more difficult, says Dave Best, chair of the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame. Ottawa is home base for an exceptional pool of sporting achievement and excellence. This is reflected in the quality of the nominations we receive. This year’s inductees are athletes, builders and champions all, with not only remarkable sport s pedigrees, but impressive records of community service and volunteerism.

Dave Smart coached the Carleton University Ravens Men's Basketball team from 1999 to 2015, and 2016 to 2019. Through those years, Smart’s teams have consistently found themselves at the top of the standings, a testament not only to his exceptional coaching skill s, but recruitment and development savvy. Smart’s teams have won an astonishing 13 nat ion al title, and he has won the Aberdeen Trophy as U Sport Coach of the Year nine times. In 2019, Smart stepped away from coaching but remains actively involved in the sport.

Dr. Don Johnson and Phil Ashcroft are legends in the field of sports medicine and rehabilitation both locally and internationally. They founded the Carleton Sports Medicine Clinic in 1973, building a world-class facility that has successfully treated tens of thousands, of athletes and non-athletes alike. Dr. Johnson is a leading expert in the field of arthroscopic surgery, and is credited with rescuing the playing careers of athletes across countless sports. He was the team physician for the Winter and Summer Olympic teams in 1976, as well as the Ottawa Rough and Ottawa Senators. Ashcroft was once the head physiotherapist for the New Zealand All Blacks and several professional soccer teams before moving to Canada where he has serviced countless local, national and international events in soccer, rugby, track & field including the 1976 Olympics games in Montreal.

About the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame
The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization, which documents, curates and celebrates outstanding achievement in local sports heritage. The Sport Hall of Fame is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors which works in close partnership with the City of Ottawa Archives to maintain and preserve our rich sporting legacies. Each year, the Hall of Fame Board receives nominations from the public, and selects new inductees to be represented in the Hall. The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame is located at CitV Hall. It contains artifacts, photographs and memorabilia honouring our sporting heritage, as well as commemorative plaques honouring its more than 270 inductees.